The Labor enquirer., 1887-06-25
AN INFAMY.

The following Associated Press dispatch
deserves careful reading:
COLUMBIA, S. c., June IS-Govemor
Richardson to-day received information from
prominent citizen of Cedar Grove, Laurene
county, to the effect that the negroes of that
neighborhood and the adjacent part Of Spar
tanburg county have organized themselves
into secret clubs, Osttnsi6ty as Knights of
Labor, and are holding frequent meetings Of
an incendiary character, the object of which
is to demand of the white farmers an increase
Of their wages to 81 and SI.5o day, and in
the event of their demands not being complied
with they propose to exterminate the white
people and take possession Of their lands.
These meetings are held three times week,
between midnight and 3 a. m. Pickets are
posted around the places Of meeting and the
utmost secrecy is observed. Speeches are
made, in which the leaders say they will kill
all the white men and the old women, take
the young women for their wives, and make
the white children work for them as their
slaves. One of the speakers at recent meet
ing expected his hearers to "burn and kill out
the whites, and, if necessary, go down to your
graves with bloody feet"
The governors informant states that an out
break may be expected at any moment, and
makes an urgent appeal for help. He also
says that the white citizens have organized a
cavalry company of fifty men, but they need
arms and ammunition, which they urge the
state authorities to supply them with immedi-
ately. The negroes, it is said, are we'll sup
piled with arms and ammunition. Adjutant-
General Bonham being absent, the governor
has ordered Colonel Scofin, the assistant ad.
jutant general, to repair to the scene Of the
disturbances, investigate the matter and report
at once. A full supply Of Springfield car
bines and ammunition for fifty men are ready
for shipment to Laurens. The governor this
afternoon expressed to your correspondent his
intention to act promptly and vigorously in
this matter, and quell the threatened insurec-
ton at the very outset. Should this report of
the investigation of the assistant hdjutant-
general verify the information already in pos
session Of the governor, several companies Of
the volunteer state troops will be sent to Lau-
rens to protect the lives and property Of the
white people. 1t is believed that these igno-
rant negroes are acting under the direction Of
Hiram Hoover, the mischievous labor agitator
who visited that section about two months ago
and was subsequently shot almost to death by
a vigilance committee at Warenton, Ga.
Hoover is the X. of L. organizer of whose
shooting mention was made in the ENQUIRER
some weeks since.
Of course the tale about uprising" and
" dividing" and "outrages," etc., is gauzy
lie only promulgated to give apparent excuse
for a proposed bloody butchery Of the poor
blacks who dare organize.
If we had general executive board which
was for labor instead Of for the bosses, the
whole power Of the order would be exerted at
once to punish Hoover's assailants and to
protect the wage slaves in their right of or
ganization.
The most damnable feature Of the affair is
the lying accounts Of the capitalist press.
Before long it will be disgrace for an honest
man to be even seen reading copy of such
press. They are more corrupting than the
most obscene OF books known, and one ought
to blush to be seen with one in hand.